


Something Deeply Important

by Luna_Myth



Series: About Missing People [5]
Category: Sword Art Online
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Canon Rewrite, Canon-Typical Violence, Danger, Emotions, Everybody Lives, F/M, Fix-It, Friendship, Gen, Home, Mild Gore, POV First Person, Video & Computer Games
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-25
Updated: 2018-10-25
Packaged: 2019-08-07 07:00:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16403561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luna_Myth/pseuds/Luna_Myth
Summary: Kirito is not going to let Eugeo die after coming so far. {Rewrite of the ending of SAO 14: Alicization Uniting. Canon divergence. Can be read as a standalone.}





	Something Deeply Important

**Author's Note:**

> eyyy someone asked earlier if i'd save eugeo's life so here we go! actually spoiled me on his death, but like, i'm used to it, and sao 14 was still super good. i had fun. anyway, person in the comments from earlier, this is for you!

                I lay my hand on Eugeo’s severed torso and summoned as much of that white light as I could. The steady gush of blood slowed somewhat, but didn’t stop. I tried again with a sense of rising panic. Eugeo couldn’t die here—I wouldn’t let him. We’d been through too many adventures together, and he still needed to fulfill his dream of going back to Rulid village with Alice. My shoulders shook with grief and horror as I watched his one life drain away. It wasn’t fair. If I died, I’d wake up in the real world somewhere, and Eugeo would still be fine. If someone had to die to stop Administrator, it should be me, not him, or any of the other residents of this world.

                “Eugeo…” I choked out. “Stay with me. Don’t die… I have so much more to show you… And your dream…to go back home with Alice… Please…you can’t give up.”

                The power of my imagination, the Incarnation I was using to keep Eugeo alive, was fading, but Eugeo grabbed my arm with a superhuman will. I’d been unable to speak, much less move, when the Sword Golem had nearly severed me, and Eugeo was cut clean through, but somehow he moved his hand to attempt to comfort me.

                “Kiri…to…it’s…okay,” he said. “This is…my role to play…”

                “No!” I sobbed, sending all the energy I could into Eugeo’s wound in an attempt to heal him. The light pulsed once as my tears fell onto his shredded shirt and then faded again. “Don’t give up! Don’t say that!”

                “It’s…supposed to be like this,” he said weakly. “I…betrayed you…I turned my sword on you…”

                “You did nothing wrong!” I pleaded with him. “But don’t go! If you’re so convinced you’re guilty, then stay! Make it up to me by living! Don’t die! That’s a coward’s way of atoning! Live, dammit!”

                Eugeo’s eyes widened. I’d never called him a coward before. But I couldn’t let him die so close to our goal, not after Cardinal and Charlotte had already sacrificed themselves for our success. And I’d had an idea—maybe the power of my Incarnation couldn’t heal Eugeo, but maybe he could heal himself if he’d just give himself a chance. With renewed determination I forced him to stay with me, pouring every ounce of my heart and soul into the idea of keeping his fluctlight present.

                “Listen to me!” I growled through my tears. “Focus on the image of yourself whole! Imagine yourself healing! Override the core visual processor with the image of yourself in one piece! DO IT!”

                The last part I nearly screamed as I pressed my hand against Eugeo and forced the light to get brighter despite the lack of spatial resources in the tower. This had to work. It _had_ to. Eugeo’s form flickered.

                Then, with a rush of warm energy, like sunlight, Eugeo gasped, his torso knitting back together, the blood pooled on the floor disappearing in a cascade of crimson gold sparks. He convulsed, like he was having a seizure, and I nearly blacked out with the fear that his fluctlight was going to collapse before his shaking stopped and he slumped back against the floor, unconscious.

                Unconscious, but alive. I stumbled to the pedestal holding the access terminal—the very one I’d come on this journey to find, though I’d almost forgotten—and used it to hold myself up. I scrolled through the menus, mostly written in the sacred tongue, English, until I found what I was looking for. _Call External Observers._  

                A pop-up menu appeared, telling me in Japanese that this would set the fluctlight acceleration back to 1.0, which was fine with me. I selected _okay_.

                For one dizzying moment, time seemed to slow to an immeasurable crawl as the acceleration returned to normal—and then it was gone, and static poured from the console. The real world. For the first time in over two years, I was connected to the place of my birth, and the place currently containing my friends and family. An intense storm of emotion swelled inside me.

                The static was broken suddenly by a ratcheting noise, which I had not been expecting. It sounded almost like…a machine gun. More shouts and cries emanated from the console. Were they under attack? But surely I was just in a small laboratory under Rath’s control somewhere in the city. Why would the laboratory be in any danger?

                More shouts and screams came from the console along with the noise of gunfire. Were they playing a movie on the other side? Unable to take the swarm of my emotions any longer, I screamed, “Kikuoka!”

                The words from the other side—something about a Main Con falling?—came to a brief halt. Then—

_“It came from the computer…Kirito? Kirigaya? Is that you? Are you there?”_

                “Yes, it’s me!” I shouted. The voice sounded like someone else I knew from Rath. Takeru Higa, the chief engineer. “Kikuoka, what the hell—“

                Footsteps, followed by-- _“Kirigaya, it’s me, listen, I know you’re angry with me—“_

It was Kikuoka, the man responsible for all of this. “Damn right I’m angry!”

                _“—but there’s something more important going on. You have to find Alice! You can yell at me all you want later, but you need to find her! She’s—“_

                “She’s right here,” I said, with a jerk over my shoulder at her unconscious form that nobody but me could see anyway.

                A stark silence from the other world, apart from the continuing gunfire and shouts of distress.

                _“M-my God_ ,” said Kikuoka after a moment, speaking hurriedly. He sounded more panicked than I’d ever heard him. _“It’s a miracle! Now listen closely, Kirigaya. Take Alice to the End Altar. Once this transmission ends, we’re going to have to set the fluctlight acceleration rate to a thousand to buy you some time. The internal console you’re on here is connected directly to Main Control, but that’s about to fall!”_ There was the sound of someone else talking from further away, and Kikuoka addressed them with increasing panic.

                “About to fall? I…?”

                _“I’m sorry—I don’t have time to explain! Listen, to get to the altar, you have to leave the Eastern Gate and head far to the south…”_

A flurry of activity overtook the line, mostly referring to locations I didn’t know. One thing stood out to me—the enemy, whoever that was, was starting to sever the main power line.

_“…but the surge will hit Kirigaya’s STL in Subcon! It’ll fry his fluctlight!”_

                That didn’t sound good. What in the world were they talking about? What was going on over there?

                The frantic cries of the Rath staff on the other end came to a split-second silence. Then Kikuoka issued new orders.

                “ _I’ll handle the locking here! Higa, you take Dr. Koujiro and Asuna and evacuate to the Upper shaft! Keep Kirito safe!”_

                They probably said more, some of it perhaps even paramount to my survival, but one name stuck in my mind—Asuna. Everything else got filtered out as background noise as questions and emotions filled my mind. Asuna was there? Why? What was going on? Was she okay? Was she safe? My heart seized in my chest at the thought of her at the other end of the transmission, nearer than she’d been in years but still so far out of reach.

                I breathed in a shaky breath, leaning closer to the console to ask Kikuoka some of these questions, but was cut off by a heart-stopping scream from a voice I didn’t recognize.

                They said something, probably something deeply important, but the next moment, I could no longer care. Silent and menacing pillars of light descended on the room I was in, beaming down from the roof of the cathedral, and painlessly, instinctively, I knew something terrible had happened. I had taken damage not just to my body, but my very soul, and whatever it was that made me who I was trailed off and vanished like mist in sunlight. Time, space, memory…They all disappeared.

                And just before my ability to think was lost, I heard a voice.

                _“Kirito! …Kirito!!”_

                That voice made me want to cry, it was so terribly nostalgic and precious. It was…The next thought hovered on the edge of my consciousness, but did not enter.

                _Whose voice is that…?_

                I did not know.


End file.
